Half-Life - An Analytical Overview

[mimaz98]

Half-Life
An Analytical Overview

In response to an argument that I was involved in several days ago in another topic, I have opted to spend some of my precious time analysing the narrative of Half-Life and all of its associated titles. The issue that has been on my mind for some time now is whether or not a Video Game or, more specifically, the narrative of a Video Game can qualify as being analytical? For hundreds, even thousands of years, written works (plays, short stories, novels) have been consistently read, re-read, and analysed with the purpose of uncovering a deeper meaning within the contexts of the story and how that related to the society in which it was written and, in turn, how it relates to society today. This category is referred to as Literature. But can the definition of Literature be expanded to include other mediums through which stories are told? The only difference with written works after all is the medium through which the stories are conveyed. Can Video Games act as this new (admittedly, more popular) medium? I believe it can. But that isn’t what I’m here to prove. I’m not here to prove that Video Games in general can act as a form of Literature. What I am here to prove is whether or not the Half-Life series can be analysed to uncover deeper meanings within the story and how that may relate to our society today and the society that is to come and, in turn, subtly relate it back to this idea that Video Games are perhaps the new, modern medium through which these stories can be written and analysed.

At first glance, Half-Life appears to be nothing more than a series based on the invasion of a massive alien race that ultimately triumphs over Earth’s forces and oppresses the surviving population. Is this, however, exactly what Half-Life is? Is it as simplistic as this? No, it is not. Let’s take a look back at Half-Life 1. The phrase “curiosity killed the cat” automatically comes to mind. In our current day and age Science and Technology is a prominent and extremely influential force. Scientific discoveries are made every day and experiments are carried out to further understand the Earth, the Universe, and our role within it. Yet, a question that has been raised on a number of occasions is; do we sometimes go too far in our need to further understand things through Science? Recently, the Hadron Particle Collider ignited resurgence in this debate when the issue of humanity’s possible extinction came into discussion. So, when do we go too far? Are the events of the original Half-Life meant to convey the possibility that our own curiosity with the Universe will ultimately harm us more than it will benefit us? As we all know, curiosity ultimately got the better of Black Mesa’s senior staff and they went ahead with an unprecedented and potentially catastrophic experiment that ultimately resulted in Humanity’s enslavement. In the words of Eli Vance, “There’s no controlling that kind of power”.

Expanding upon the idea of Technology is the issue of reliance, genetic-engineering, and sentiency. How do these issues relate to our society today and where our society may ultimately take us? Firstly, our reliance on Technology. The world’s economy, for example, is entirely technologically based. The distribution and exchange of goods and services, transportation, information retrieval through the Internet, medicine etc. Ask yourselves; in the event that our technology was to fail on us under certain circumstances (an electromagnetic pulse for example), how would we survive? We wouldn’t. We’d be back to the Stone Age. The Combine Advisors were once very much like us. Humanoids. What happened to them? They grew far too reliant on the technology that they themselves once constructed and, as a result, changed into something more physically primitive and vulnerable. Even with their advanced telekinetic abilities they are still vulnerable to technology – their only obvious weakness at this point. Are they perhaps a metaphorical representation of us in the future? Secondly, the issue of Genetic-Engineering. Many scientists today believe that it could ultimately benefit the Human race. But will always be the case? Throughout Half-Life 2 and its Episodes we are forced to fight against genetically-modified soldiers that were once Human beings who could feel and act on their own accord. Now, they are slaves to a greater power, acting under the influence of their leaders, unable to make any moral decisions on behalf of themselves or others. Even more harrowing are the Stalkers who have been completely and utterly stripped of their humanity, appearing as nothing more than walking, living skeletons. Are they a metaphorical representation of where our technology will lead us? Thirdly, the idea of Sentiency. We are coming to an age now where humanoid robots will be constructed and forced to coincide with the lives of Humans. How will they be treated? This question has been explored numerous times throughout history, through the likes of ‘I, Robot’ and ‘Star Trek’. Will they be forced to work as slaves who have little to no rights at all? When can we judge something as being sentient or not? Half-Life 2 has also explored this issue with the character of DOG, Alyx’s pet robot. Loyal, sensitive, and calculating with an obvious ability to understand English, DOG represents the best possibility for a potential robotic population in the future with an owner, or companion, who cares very deeply for him and appreciates all of the assistance that he is able to give.

As our technology has improved so too has our ability to extract and retrieve resources from within the Earth’s surface. But although this may appear too be beneficial for us, Earth’s natural resources are not infinite. It has become obvious over recent years that with our advanced techniques we are putting much strain on the Earth and her natural resources. The lack of water in certain parts of the world, Global Warming, the extraction of Oil, and the cutting down of Earth’s forest (coupled with the endangerment of numerous animal species) are all examples of this. In Half-Life 2 especially it becomes painfully obvious that the use of technology has ridden the Earth dry and barren. Water levels have decreased by dozens of feet, the climate system has drastically changed, brutal walls advance against materials and collect its resources, and dozens upon dozens of wildlife species have become extinct in the process. Does the Combine’s oppression of Earth perhaps subtly represent the Earth we will leave for our children and their children? Will we consume Earth’s resources to such a point that the planet will become largely uninhabitable? That’s a question that has to be decided by current generations leading the world today.

The media is perhaps the most influential factor in anyone’s lives today. We are bombarded every day with advertisements for goods and services, fashion trends that influence the way people behave, dress and eat, and persuasive opinions that are written and conveyed through newspapers, television programs, and magazines. The world very much relies on the Media’s influence, whether that is good influence or bad influence. Just as in real-life, Half-Life 2 and its Episodes also represent the importance of propaganda and its profound effects on most of the population. Posters and graffiti litter the walls showcasing the benefits of joining the Combine and accepting humanity’s transition into the ‘next phase of human evolution’, and huge television screens plastered around outside and portable TVs located in apartment buildings help make this transition move a little more smoothly with a single human representative acting as messenger for the Combine. As a result, most of the citizens abide by the incredibly restrictive and harsh rules. Though it may be represented on a greater level, Half-Life 2 and its Episodes all showcase the incredibly persuasive techniques that the Media behold upon the public. They are messengers. Messengers for the huge corporate companies who wish to persuade people to do certain things, to abide by certain trends, and to purchase certain products.

Well...I think I’ve written enough. I could quite easily go into several further areas of discussion such as increasing oppression upon the public, how we may ultimately depend upon ‘credit’ to live and survive (just as the citizens in HL2 depend upon food rations to live and survive), how a single World Government may be formed in the future to govern us all, and some others. I hope you’ve enjoyed the essay. I think it makes it clear that the Half-Life series is more than just a series of games where you pick up a weapon and shoot the enemy. It’s far more deep and compelling than that and I believe that it offers players a chance to delve into a possible future that Humanity may have to live in (excluding being oppressed by a huge inter-dimensional alien race). And, relating back to the idea of Literature, Half-Life can be analysed deeply and it does represent what’s happening in our society today and where our society could lead us.

So, put forward your thoughts/opinions. I'd love to hear them.

[Juggalo]

Um... Thats right. Good Job

[MyNameDidntFit]

Its 1am so I've only skimmed through it but it sounds pretty good. I definitely agree that games can be analysed, perhaps more-so than texts.

With a text you have only the author's words to go by, but with a game you have the story writers' words, the scenery with an intricate detail that no book with any heed for pacing would involve... With a book the author cannot include what is off 100m in a way that the characters would not traverse. Sure they can say that there is a path to the let or whatnot, but the author cannot take the reader down said path without taking away from the story and the pace of the text.
A game, however, gives the player the freedom to explore that path, to look about the world and see the things that are not so obvious.

Games also bring into the picture an element of choice. In a book the reader cannot make a scene go one way rather than another, they just watch it unfold before them with no control. Games, though, allow the player to twist the story slightly around so that it is different for them compared to another player... But if I read a book and you read a book it will be exactly the same; only the picture in our minds' eyes will be different.

There is one area where texts take the lead ahead of games and that is thought. In a game you might see the thoughts of the protagonist, but that is it. Whereas a book can easily switch to different characters' minds without interrupting anything or lowering the quality of the narrative. For a game to have this it has to be done flawlessly, and if it isn't it detracts from the game.

So, in a sentence, yes; games can be analytical, even more-so than books and whatnot at times.


I probably made no sense... But like I said, it's 1am.

[mimaz98]

Thanks MDNF. Couldn't agree more with you there.

[Escortmk1]

I decided to actually read the entire article and say that you did a pretty good job at that. Another appropriate movie is A.I.

[Goggalor]

Great work mimaz.

I am interested in the postion that Power plays in the Game. In HL2, Breen is seen in a position of power. He is certainly more privalged than regular citizens or any other human or trans human. But we ultimately see that he is not in power at all, but just a human puppet for the Advisors to control humans through. Not that I want to derail the thread into the political spectrum, but the office of President of the United States is often (in this country at least) considered the most powerful person on Earth. The problem is that to get there you need lots of money, and to get that money the heads of the multinational corporations will give it to you with strings attached. So while you may get elected, you are still at the mercy of those corporations that got you into office.

Eli, on the other hand, is in a dank lab and doesn't seem to weild much power at all, but the respect given to him by his peer put him in the position of leader among the resistance. The parallel I think of for Eli is Aragorn from Lord of the Rings. While he has the heredity title of King, and the authority to order men to war, that isn't why people follow him. They follow him and take his orders out of respect, honor, and love of the man, not his title.

[evanjackman]

tr;dr.


Seriously. I'm intimidated. I'll hit this up on a full stomach tomorrow or something.

[Ultima V|RUZ]

I love this thread , well written, well thought out.

[mimaz98]

Originally Posted by UncFester

Wow!

That is a marvelous thing you've done there, Mimaz!
It raises so many issues that are all tied together very neatly.

I'd like to comment in detail, but right now the first things that come to mind regards whether science can be deemed to go too far.

Before the first atom bomb exploded in the New Mexico desert, there were scientists who sincerely believed it could possibly be our end -- they held the view that the bomb would turn our atmosphere to silica.

Well, they were wrong. Nothing wrong with that (because it didn't happen), but there have been things predicted in the past which were denied very vociferously for the longest time, until today when we see that they were correct.

One example off the top is the old Malthusian Population Theory -- it was largely dismissed -- which is now seemingly bearing some truth. We have a wide assortment of population-created problems today which cannot easily be circumvented via technological methods. The old saying, "neccessity is the mother of invention" is not going to be able to take on an increasingly crowded Earth (and all of its related problems) without somehow limiting our use of limited resources), hence the current "Green" movement.

The LHC is deemed by some to be the harbinger of our doom, but then so has almost every other technological endeavor. It's the old "playing God" mantra at one end, and Neo-Luddism at the other.

Religious objections to science in many forms abounds, such as the "mark of the beast" cults and so forth.

Your post has so much to touch upon it's difficult to keep myself from getting off of the central point of whether the story of Half-Life mirrors any of these things.

My answer is, "Yes, it does" and on many levels as you have already illustrated so perfectly.

Half-Life's story to many players is just what you said, a story about alien invasion with good guys, bad guys and an ultimate hero. But many of us here in the forums are dedicated to discussing things in Half-Life in such detail (not Laszlo) that your point is easily verified. That you posted all of these ideas is proof in and of itself that the Half-Life story in video game form is indeed representative of a new form of literature.

I believe there are many video game reviewers who discount this idea, but then compare their function to that of say, "Siskel and Ebert." They're doing the same thing; Is this game good? Is this game bad? What makes it good? What makes it bad? Actual game play aside, they always have to comment on whether the backstory in a game makes sense, or not. Backstory is important even though they seem to fail to realize it in the face of their own words.

The relating of tales by humankind was first oral, then pictures scrawled/carved/painted upon some surface. Recounting a tale with symbols (writing) followed and held for thousands of years. Then movies -- the visual/aural representation of a story with the "reader" still being outside of the story itself, simply taking it all in.

Now we have video games which can effectively put the "reader" into the story itself to experience it in a "first hand" way -- a sort of, "This is happening to me, right now!" kind of experience.

Just as the first computers and game consoles had such a limited capacity, a story was nearly impossible to tell in any way other than the most simplistic: "Yellow thing eats dots. Ghost things eat yellow thing. Must live as long as possible!"

Wow, what a story!

Today, with increased capacity and rich-media abilities, the video game is now beginning to stand alongside cinema as a form of literature. Anyone who would dare say that GTA4 doesn't tell a good story (satire, to be precise) just doesn't "get it."

These are things I can think of at the moment, but if the discussion here continues I will be sure to give more of my thoughts.

Thank you for starting this thread!

Ah yes. The Atom Bomb. I had somehow forgotten all about that while writing it up. You're absolutely right. Although it didn't 'end mankind' as many scientists predicted, it was and still is the most destructive weapon that mankind has ever created and they remain extremely dangerous to this day. The threat of Nuclear Warfare is always lingering in the back of everyone's minds.

I think what I'd also like to touch upon at some point later on which I find particularly interesting is the idea that 'Credit' or 'Rations' may ultimately take over money as our primary means of exchanging goods and services. It has been predicted that at some point in the future every Human will be forced to have a chip implemented into their right hand and only with this will you be able to purchase the necessary materials to survive. I think Half-Life 2 foreshadows this. The citizens of City 17 prior to the rebellion all have to acquire nourishment through 'food rations' which can be deducted by the Combine.

[evanjackman]

Okay, finished the second paragraph, and I have to point out that it was not Black Mesa's curiosity. The G-Man put the crystal there.

[bobsmurf]

And they say you can't do anything with a degree in English!

Originally Posted by evanjackman

Okay, finished the second paragraph, and I have to point out that it was not Black Mesa's curiosity. The G-Man put the crystal there.

Yeah. And then they experimented on it, because they were curious.

[Otto-Grainer]

Wow, this really is a beautiful read. Excellent work, Mimaz. I'm going to have to go over it again.

[mimaz98]

Originally Posted by evanjackman

Okay, finished the second paragraph, and I have to point out that it was not Black Mesa's curiosity. The G-Man put the crystal there.

Despite the fact that he supplied the crystal, it was because of Black Mesa's curiosity, Eli's curiosity, that ultimately the test was carried out.

Originally Posted by bobsmurf

And they say you can't do anything with a degree in English!

Well I don't have an English dgeree...yet.

[Solarmech]

A very interesting read. But I think a bit on the negative side. Many people are starting to become much more aware of their impart on the earth and are taking steps to minimize the negative and even fix the problems we face. It really comes down to what we do with out tools. Take the simplest tool of all, the rock. What can to fo with a rock? You can you a piece of wood to make a lever with it. You cn use it to make a furrow inthe ground to plant seeds. You can shapen it to make a arrow or spear head to kill game. You can shapen it to make a arrow or spear head to kill the person next door. Tools are just that, tools. What is done with them and how they effect our world is determined by how we use them and what we use them for.

As a note, you where talking about AI's and didn't mention GLaDOS? (I know, she didn't fit into the flow of the essay)

Originally Posted by mimaz98

Ah yes. The Atom Bomb. I had somehow forgotten all about that while writing it up. You're absolutely right. Although it didn't 'end mankind' as many scientists predicted, it was and still is the most destructive weapon that mankind has ever created and they remain extremely dangerous to this day. The threat of Nuclear Warfare is always lingering in the back of everyone's minds.

I hate to say this, but as bad as a full scale nuclear exchange would be, humanity would be able to survive. Most people would die but the species would survive. And let's face it, no large nuclear power really wants to drop the bomb. It was much more likely that an accident would start things off (and there where a number in the US and the USSR that almost did).
A threat that most people don't think about much is bioweapons. And they should. The USSR spent a lot of time and money into research and developed stuff that the human body has no protection against. (A number of the development are chimera which mixes the traits from totaly differant germs and bateria to create something totaly alien to anything produced in nature). And with the spread of information on altering living thigs, this kind of bioweapon could be produced by minor powers and even terrorists. And unlike the major world powers, terrorists don't have ANY problem with using such weapons. And have stated if they did have them they would use them. sm

[mimaz98]

Originally Posted by Solarmech

A very interesting read. But I think a bit on the negative side. Many people are starting to become much more aware of their impart on the earth and are taking steps to minimize the negative and even fix the problems we face. It really comes down to what we do with out tools. Take the simplest tool of all, the rock. What can to fo with a rock? You can you a piece of wood to make a lever with it. You cn use it to make a furrow inthe ground to plant seeds. You can shapen it to make a arrow or spear head to kill game. You can shapen it to make a arrow or spear head to kill the person next door. Tools are just that, tools. What is done with them and how they effect our world is determined by how we use them and what we use them for.

As a note, you where talking about AI's and didn't mention GLaDOS? (I know, she didn't fit into the flow of the essay)

I agree but, according to some geologists, we've already crossed the threshold of no return and, unfortuantely, the efforts that many people are putting forward just isn't good enough when discussing something on a global scale.